Manila was established as a suffragan diocese of Mexico on February 6, 1579 by Pope Gregory XIII by virtue of the Apostolic Constitution “Illius fulti praesido,” following the first successful missionary efforts.

On August 14,1595, Pope Clement VIII raised the Diocese to the status of an Archdiocese and created three new dioceses as suffragan to Manila: Nueva Caceres, Nueva Segovia, and Cebu. With the creation of these new dioceses, the territory of the Archdiocese was reduced to the city of Manila and the ten civil provinces near it. Rizal, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Batangas, Laguna, Cavite, Bataan, Zambales, and Mindoro.

On April 10, 1910, the province of Mindoro was established as an independent diocese by virtue of a Decretum Consistoriale executed by Pope Pius XI implementing the Bull “Quae Mari Sinico” of Pope Leo XIII. Eighteen years later, on May 19, 1928, Pope Pius XI established the Diocese of Lingayen, diving Manila and Nueva Segovia. In this division 26 parishes were separated from Manila.

On December 11, 1948, the Apostolic Constitution, “Probe noscitur” further divided the Archdiocese of Manila by separating the northern part of the Archdiocese and establishing it as the Diocese of San Fernando.

On November 25, 1961, the Archdiocese of Manila was again divided. The civil provinces of Bulacan in the north and Cavite in the south were separated from the archdiocese. Bulacan became the Diocese of Malolos and Cavite became the Diocese of Imus.

The Eastern part of the province of Rizal was removed from the Archdiocese of Manila on January 24, 1983. Fifteen towns and two barangays were separated from Manila to form the diocese of Antipolo.

In 2002, two more dioceses were carved out of the Archdiocese of Manila. These are the Diocese of Novaliches in the north and the Diocese of Paranaque in the south also comprising the cities of Las Pinas and Muntinlupa. This happened during the term of His Eminence, Jaime Cardinal Sin, D.D., who became the third Filipino prelate of the See of Manila on January 19, 1974.

The Archdiocese of Manila is made up of seven (7) cities, namely, Manila, Makati, Pasay, Mandaluyong, Pasig (excluding Santolan and Rosario District), Quezon City (excluding Northern part from Tandang Sora Avenue and Mactan), Kalookan and five (5) municipalities, namely, San Juan, Taguig, Pateros, Malabon and Navotas. It covers a land area of 315.26 sq. km. It is bounded by the Diocese of Malolos (Bulcan) in the north; Diocese of Antipolo (Rizal) in the East; Diocese of Imus (Cavite) and San Pablo (Laguna) in the south; and the Manila Bay in the west